Teen Ages: Teaching young art students

June 15, a bright and good-natured Sunday, marked the end of my high school career of teaching.

Perhaps that statement is a little too final, maybe even too dramatic, but now — months later — the closure is finally settling in. I have taught a great group of kids at the local cultural center and now I have to let them go.

I taught an art class to a small class of 5- to 7-year-olds. On the last day, June 15, we learned about Picasso. I wanted to teach them a bit about abstract art before the year ended, because it was something I never grasped until high school. Perhaps I can blame that late understanding on our terribly boring kindergarten visit to the abstract art museum, but either way I believe that grasping art in its most basic forms — concepts, raw feelings, visual imagery — is important, especially to young children. Before they begin to copy down what they see in the real world and render each loving stroke, they should understand the power and the meaning behind "art."

I told them that Picasso could draw and paint very well in the traditional, realistic sense. "But he chose to do his art in an abstract way. For example, he lived during the Spanish Civil War, when there was an 'evil king' in power and people were being killed. So he used these sharp shapes to represent the pain and suffering of his people."

They were all very quiet. Then, one of them asked, "Did the evil king die?"

"Yes," I said.

"How?"

"Yeah, how did he die?"

At that time, I didn't know, so I led them onward. Together, we filled the expansive and sometimes daunting territory of blank white paper with the wonders of childhood experimentation and vision.

The ending was truly bittersweet. The girls and I hugged; the boys clung to my legs. But such are endings. Rivers must end so that oceans can begin.

Later, I looked up how Franco died. I didn't tell them that Franco died of cardiac arrest. In fact, I didn't even know until I looked it up afterward. Curiosity reigns above all, but, they really didn't need to know how Franco died. It was more important to me that they knew how Picasso lived.

Lavinia Liang is a 2014 graduate of Spackenkill High School. Contact her at life@poughkeepsiejournal.com